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Topic: Backscene painting (Read 320 times)

I am about to start painting my back scene and I'm not to sure how to go about it. I will be having just blue sky and clouds nothing to fancy as I want to be looking at my layout and not the wall behind . Need tips on shades of blue to use and the creation of clouds.

I guess it depends on what season you want create. Spring could be pale blue and summer bright blue. Autumn/winter could be shades of grey rather than blue. Thinking back to various make-over programmes on the telly (e.g. Changing Rooms), clouds could be created by ragging or spongeing i.e. set a background colour then dab with a scrunched up rag/sponge wetted with cloud colour paint.You might guess I've never tried it although it's something I'll have to turn my hand to at some point

« Last Edit: September 24, 2017, 10:46:51 pm by newportnobby, Reason: remembered the name of the TV prog »

Depends on the surface on which you are painting, Les. Trial pots of household emulsions from your local d-i-y store would be best if you are actually painting on the wall. If you are painting onto some impervious board then I would use acrylics: Cyan Blue, Zinc Mixing White, Pains Grey, and Matte Acrylic Medium. You need a good quality "sky" brush, a cheap bristle brush for the clouds, something like a No.7 round, and a flat-bottomed bowl for mixing. Your main problem will be getting the paint fairly even from one end of the layout to the other so that there are no scenic breaks in the sky, though a strategically placed cloud can hide flaws. Try mixing a lot of white with the medium (which is there to slow the drying time) and add blue cautiously until you get the shade you want for the horizon. On a painting I would be adding more blue higher in the sky, but on a standard N-gauge background of 9-12 inches that is probably unnecessary. You need to work with long brush-strokes, as lifting the brush off and putting it down again will give you unwanted lines in the sky.For the clouds, first have a careful look at the variation in the colour of the clouds on some day which approximates the effect you want. Then put some white in your bowl with a tiny amount of Pains Grey at one side, and mix the grey roughly into one side of the white. Decide on the direction which the light is coming from, start with the pure white on the top of the cloud on that side, and add slightly greyer shades on the other side and below. Clouds nearer to you, (higher in the sky) will be wider than the thinner ones further away.

Depends on the surface on which you are painting, Les. Trial pots of household emulsions from your local d-i-y store would be best if you are actually painting on the wall. If you are painting onto some impervious board then I would use acrylics: Cyan Blue, Zinc Mixing White, Pains Grey, and Matte Acrylic Medium. You need a good quality "sky" brush, a cheap bristle brush for the clouds, something like a No.7 round, and a flat-bottomed bowl for mixing. Your main problem will be getting the paint fairly even from one end of the layout to the other so that there are no scenic breaks in the sky, though a strategically placed cloud can hide flaws. Try mixing a lot of white with the medium (which is there to slow the drying time) and add blue cautiously until you get the shade you want for the horizon. On a painting I would be adding more blue higher in the sky, but on a standard N-gauge background of 9-12 inches that is probably unnecessary. You need to work with long brush-strokes, as lifting the brush off and putting it down again will give you unwanted lines in the sky.For the clouds, first have a careful look at the variation in the colour of the clouds on some day which approximates the effect you want. Then put some white in your bowl with a tiny amount of Pains Grey at one side, and mix the grey roughly into one side of the white. Decide on the direction which the light is coming from, start with the pure white on the top of the cloud on that side, and add slightly greyer shades on the other side and below. Clouds nearer to you, (higher in the sky) will be wider than the thinner ones further away.

I've got two options David. the MDF that I have screwed to the wall behind the layout or cover it with lining paper and if I make a mess I can always rip it off and start again.

I can print on banner paper up to 4' long, so I either use downloaded sky if I want a fair bit of cloud, or use a cloud effect in my image editor which gives a typical summer sky with very light high cloud;

Summer sky when stretched to 4' long looks even better, also further editing can graduate the blue paler towards the bottom;

I can print on banner paper up to 4' long, so I either use downloaded sky if I want a fair bit of cloud, or use a cloud effect in my image editor which gives a typical summer sky with very light high cloud;

Summer sky when stretched to 4' long looks even better, also further editing can graduate the blue paler towards the bottom;

If you are painting direct onto the mdf, Les, you should get some Gesso also and prime the board before painting. Depending on the quality of your lining paper, it might be a good idea even if you line it first. I get most of my stuff painting requisites from The Works or Dunelm and what I detailed above would cost you £20-25, which might make buying a commercial sky paper cheaper!